Letter from the director: NATIVE GARDEN TOUR

Ojai Valley residents have done an admirable job in planting drought-tolerant gardens to save one of our most precious resources, water. OVLC’s Rewild Ojai Program began as an idea to enhance those laudable efforts by bringing native habitat restoration into private yards to advance meaningful biodiversity goals while still saving water. 

While each garden (and gardener!) is contributing in their own unique and inspirational way to that objective, I am thrilled to report that OVLC’s Rewild Ojai Program has now certified more than 80 acres of rewilded habitat across the community. That is an area larger than the 58-acre Ojai Meadows Preserve, created not in one place but across dozens of landscapes throughout the valley. 

OVLC and Birdsong Ranch recently hosted the renowned ecologist Doug Tallamy to speak about how rewilding can help reverse the tide of species loss. Dr. Tallamy emphasized that, for the insects that are the basis of our native food chains, habitat size doesn’t matter. Each of us can make a difference in our own small way. My wife and I planted a couple of narrow-leaved milkweeds in our yard and voilà, monarch butterflies appeared just weeks later. 

Across the valley, gardeners are discovering that native plants support an extraordinary diversity of insects, birds, and other wildlife. Even small patches of habitat can provide essential food and shelter. When these gardens are spread across the community, they begin to form a network of habitat that benefits the entire landscape. 

If you would like to see this effort firsthand, OVLC’s Native Garden Tour on April 18 offers a chance to visit a collection of inspiring gardens that are helping restore habitat right here in our community. 

By planting native species in our own yards, each of us can help support what the great biologist E.O. Wilson called “the little things that run the world.” 

Tom Maloney, Executive Director